Increases in resilience and school performance among elementary school-aged afterschool participants.

Elementary-school students enrolled in a trauma-informed program participated in a prepost longitudinal study of resilience. The study assesses increases in various components of resilience, the effects of the afterschool program on resilience, and the relationship between resilience and school performance. A shortened version of a reliable resilience survey was developed from Madsen Thompson's Trauma Resilience Scale and administered at students' entry and exit from 3 yearly sessions.

Community-wide resilience mitigates adverse childhood experiences on adult and youth health, school/work, and problem behaviors.

This study developed community-wide measures for 118 Washington State communities of levels of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and resilience, and found significant mitigating effects of resilience on community-wide levels of mental health, physical health, problem behaviors, and school/work outcomes, independent of community-wide levels of ACEs, low income, and race/ethnic composition. The data set was constructed by calculating aggregated community-level variables from measures obtained from survey responses to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for adults and the Healthy Youth Survey for youth and combining them with state archival data. Principal component factor scores were calculated for community-wide levels of individual and contextual resilience.

How to increase community-wide resilience and decrease inequalities due to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): Strategies from Walla Walla, Washington.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) negatively impact community-level social problems, education, work, mental, and physical health beyond the effects of economic and political inequality. This paper summarizes the evidence that community-wide resilience moderates such impacts and examines how resilience can be increased by strategic interventions focused on community capacity building; Trauma-Informed Practices (TIPs) by staff in community organizations; and cultural change. Findings from three formative research evaluations in Walla Walla, Washington, show how community capacity was increased, trauma-informed practices were implemented across local organizations, and a school's culture was transformed.

Stress pathways to health inequalities: Embedding ACEs within social and behavioral contexts.

Objective: This study addresses whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) demonstrate disproportional prevalence across demographic- and health-affecting characteristics, offer significant explanation of adult health outcomes, and show patterned association with illness susceptibility early within and across adulthood when viewed in combination with income and psychosocial resources.

Methods: Data were derived from a population-based state health survey using stratified random sampling of household adults (n=7,470): ages 18-99 (M=55), 59.9% females, and race/ethnicity, income and education levels representative of the region.

Distinct contributions of adverse childhood experiences and resilience resources: a cohort analysis of adult physical and mental health.

Although evidence is rapidly amassing as to the damaging potential of early life adversities on physical and mental health, as yet few investigations provide comparative snapshots of these patterns across adulthood. This population-based study addresses this gap, examining the relationship of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to physical and mental health within a representative sample (n = 19,333) of adults, comparing the prevalence and explanatory strength of ACEs among four birth cohorts spanning ages 18-79. This assessment accounts for demographic and socioeconomic factors, as well as both direct and moderating effects of resilience resources (social/emotional support, life satisfaction, and sleep quality).

Reducing adverse childhood experiences (ACE) by building community capacity: a summary of Washington Family Policy Council research findings.

Community capacity for organization and collaboration has been shown to be a powerful tool for improving the health and well-being of communities. Since 1994 the Washington State Family Policy Council has supported the development of community capacity in 42 community public health and safety networks. Community networks bring local communities together to restructure natural supports and local resources to meet the needs of families and children, and increase cross-system coordination and flexible funding streams to improve local services and policy.

Treatment readmissions and criminal recidivism in youth following participation in chemical dependency treatment.

The purpose of this study was to use administrative records of admissions to substance abuse treatment to construct episodes of care for publicly funded adolescent clients in Washington State, and then to analyze two important outcomes after an index episode: readmissions to treatment and criminal convictions (including felony convictions and any conviction). The study population was youth, ages 14 to 17, who began and ended an index episode in 1997 and 1998 (n=5903). The youth were followed for 18 months after the end of their episode, and survival analysis techniques were used to determine the treatment correlates of the outcomes.